Edupunk is just a tag … bootstrapping is a life philosophy

Edupunk is really the DIY movement in teaching. Rather than relying on whatever learning management system their school subscribes to and e-paks from the publisher, edupunk educators go out to the blogosphere, the metaverse or into a MMORPG to find what will engage their students. It is an attitude about teaching that involves creativity, whimsy, Web 2.0 and a very limited budget (if you get a budget at all). So you DIY, you bootstrap, you use your strong and weak ties over the Internet to learn what others educators are doing. And most times you come up with something for your students that is engaging, challenging and creative.

It’s about the passion for educating and learning – doesn’t matter what it’s called edupunk, DIY, Web 2.0, bootstrapping or bricolage. You do it heart and soul and it shows.

Edupunk is just a word that seems to work for educators who have been DIYing it, bootstrapping and pushing education and learning to the bleeding edge.

The ISTE Games & Sims Network is hosting an immersive event & discussion of learning in a multiuser virtual environment (MUVE). Join us for a blended reality session featuring a live stream from the World of Warcraft (WoW) as we explore educational opportunities in a massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). You can participate 3 ways. We have a YouTube live stream, a Discord channel for voice discussion, and the immersive event in WoW. For more information or to RSVP go to this google doc.

Ed Surge’s speculative article of VR and cadavers. In May, EduPunxers participated in a discussion on the University of Colorado’s Anschutz Medical Campus on using VR not to replace cadavers but as a study aid to supplement training in the cadaver lab.

We are participating in the Virginia Society for Technology (VSTE) in Education’s summer book club facilitated by Vassili Giannoutsos and here’s some of the videos the book club is watching.

We’re doing a Tech Trek for professional development at eLCC’s July 27th meeting.

Our first ever Tech Trek from 10 am – 1130 am MT will start in Zoom.

If you want to join get into the Zoom BaseCamp between 10 am – 10:20 am.
Promptly at 10:30 we’ll start our Tech Trek.
We see how the pacing goes….and jump to or through as many platforms as we can.

We start in Zoom, go to Google Hangout on Air Live, Discord,
then go to a FlipGrid grid, a Kahoot Quiz and end up on Periscope.

Before the trek, please update your Chrome browser

Suggested Equipment:
1) Webcam
2) Having a second screen will make sure you can stay in touch with Basecamp and participate in events
3) A mobile device would be nice to use with Flipgrid, Kahoot and Periscope

This is compilation of our reports from the AD Update and the Virtual Connected Educator from this last week

Slow Tweetchat Now to July 29

Join in at anytime! For our Summer Book Club,we are reading Learning Transported which is Jaime Donally’s book on augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). Mary Townsend will be facilitating the ISTE Games & Sims’ slow tweetchat. We’ll be using the hashtag #istebook. Even if you’re not reading the book, there will be some interesting discussions on VR and AR happening on twitter using the hashtag #istebook.

Help Wanted

Two of our colleagues are looking for help with their research.

Culturally Relevant Pedagogy and Technology

Kathryn is interested in interviewing teachers who have a culturally responsive pedagogy and also use technology in their classrooms. Is this you? Would you consider being interviewed by phone and/or spreading the word? If so here is the link to the interest form: https://goo.gl/forms/1YzI2GMEYXFMeVoC3

Here’s the pictures of both Ready Player 101 demos and the presentation area. None of these pics are staged so you can get a feel of what it was like. We had so many people we started 30 minutes early because people were ready for it. We’ve started to get conference pictures up on Fliickr, go ahead and take a look. Feel free to join and put yours up too.

Ethics & Games Monthly

On Sunday, Sherry Jones did the ISTE Games & Sims monthly Ethics & Games webinar on

Detention (2016) is a horror game developed by Red Candle Games, and is set in 1960s Taiwan. The game story is based on real historical events. Detention received Steam greenlight in 2016, and became one of the most influential indie games in 2017 for its ability to enhance the horror genre with history, for the purpose of retelling the real horrors that happened to the Taiwanese people during the 1960s era. The indie title has received the following awards from various award organization (listed on Red Candle Games website):

Humble Bundle is bundling ebooks from Springer on augmented reality and virtual reality

In case you missed it……

VEJ summer edition came out the first day of the conference. This digital journal is edited by our friends Bob and Rosie Vojtek. It is hot off the presses (virtually speaking of course) and the Games & Sims Network and IB is well represented in it.

We are reading the Virtual Education Journal (VEJ). VEJ summer edition just came out. This digital journal is edited by educators Bob and Rosie Vojtek..

My idea for a social design experiment tool comes during a two week period where I found myself influenced by several factors. I had to politely intervene when a faculty member was conflating the term hybridity with hybrid learning, based on a blog post (Stossel, 2012). I also had started to read and try to cognitively process Engeström’s (1987) book on cultural historical activity theory. Lastly, I attended a games convention and subjected a group of my friends who are educators to my thoughts on all of this. The reflection below is combination of all of these factors.

Social Design Experiment Tool

I was intrigued with the discussion of Ave’s text as syncretic autobiography and its utilization as a tool that was “critical autobiography and testimonio” (Gutiérrez 2008. p. 149). I also appreciate the further discussion of Ave’s text as a “sociopolitical narrative shared orally and witnessed in an intimate and respectful learning community” (Gutiérrez 2008. p. 149). The text has a discussion of all the activities and tools utilized in the Third Space. While there was not a detailed discussion of teatro del oprimido, I did search for more information on it both through an Internet search and academic database search. It did seem with the teatro del oprimido experience that the students are given roles but their roles are limited to that one event. I think there might be a possibility of also using a role-playing game for students to express their experiences using sociocritical literacy in a Third Space (Gutiérrez, Baquedano-López, & Tejeda, 1999). In the four articles, that we read, the games seemed limited to physical games and board games. While computer games were mentioned in Gutiérrez & Vossoughi (2010) it does not seem that online role-playing games were being explored. As an instructional designer, I could not help but consider that another social design experiment tool that could be added to the toolkit is the use of a role-playing game framework for a continuing storyline. I would suggest a tabletop or pen-and-paper role-playing game where players describe their character’s action through speech. Role-playing games are inherently co-creations of a gamemaster and the players. In this storyline or campaign, a student could create their own character that could be based on critical autobiography and testimonio and play through a storyline initially created by a teacher or an instructional designer. The role of the gamemaster or the game moderator could be played by a student, volunteer, teaching assistant or teacher. Once students became familiar with game moderation, the role of the gamemaster and the creation of a storyline could be taken over by a student or students. In role-playing through a storyline, students would be able to imagine and speculate on future possibilities even as described by Gutiérrez (2008) with the language and grammar of a Third Space. The use of multiplayer video games as third place or a community space was explored by Steinkuehler and Williams (2006).

There are two additional technology enhanced components that could be added to the toolkit. Audio recording and also video livestreaming could allow these Third Spaces to have a sustained modality beyond text. Audio recording or podcasting of role-playing games has become more popular. An example of popular podcast of a continuing storyline is the Adventure Zone. The Adventure Zone is not educational, but a podcast like this could be tool for a Third Space which could include hybrid language practices (Gutiérrez, Baquedano-López, & Tejeda, 1999). There is additionally a literary genre that is gaining popularity as text and audio which is called LITrpg (Miller, 2016) or Role Playing Game literature. A recorded session of role-playing could be recorded and then, using a voice to text application or close captions on a YouTube Channel set to private, a transcript of the session could be downloaded. Students could reflect on their characters, their interactions with others, and their decisions in the storyline.

We don’t want to create a spoiler for anyone who hasn’t read the book but what starts happening on page 92 in Chapter 9 has some possible similarities to reddit. We’ll wait until we get there to discuss it more.

For the month of May, we are reading, dissecting and discussing Ender’s Game (Book 1) with the Metagame Book Club. We had this strange idea of mapping it back to educational theory. Is it more Kolb’ s Experiential Learning Cycle and where does Montessori show up in there?

Please Join the Games & Sims Network for a livestream of the closing keynote of our summer book club.

Dr. Cynthia Calongne, Colorado Technical University professor, game designer and researcher will be presenting Games and 3D Simulations: Dystopian Fears to Utopian Visions.

In the book club, we’ve discussed virtual reality, gamification and the quantified self, games as assessment and what school would look like if it was in virtual world. We’ve played Ingress guided in hangouts by Michael Flood and also Cynthia Clark, the Fauxasis created by Matthew Winner (real name) for the Level Up Book Club and even a group of dystopian games curated by Jon Spike.

Dr. Calongne’s presentation will complete the Metagame Book Club discussion on a rather optimistic note of how the future might look if we use games and 3D simulations in education.